Using the Beans in Vanilla Sugar

[Shel_B]

It's often been suggested to store vanilla beans in sugar as the beans impart a vanilla flavor to the sugar.

 

If vanilla beans impart flavor to the sugar, do they lose some of their flavor?  Do the seeds, which don't come in direct contact with the sugar, lose any of their flavor?

 

If the same vanilla beans and seeds are used with the vanilla sugar in a dessert, like a custard or panna cotta, would the dessert have a more intense vanilla flavor?

 

Would using a "fresh" vanilla bean and the enhanced vanilla sugar provide greater flavor to the custard, etc?

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Yes.

[weinoo]

Yes.

[jmacnaughtan]

Frequently you put your used vanilla pod in the sugar, so you're giving it a second use.

 

The sugar doesn't get a particularly strong flavour anyway, it's just used to enhance things a little.  If you're using fresh, whole, unused and unscraped beans, all that might happen is your pod will dry out and the sugar will take on a mild vanilla flavour.

 

In other words, I wouldn't worry about it.

[Tri2Cook]

Frequently you put your used vanilla pod in the sugar, so you're giving it a second use.

 

The sugar doesn't get a particularly strong flavour anyway, it's just used to enhance things a little.  If you're using fresh, whole, unused and unscraped beans, all that might happen is your pod will dry out and the sugar will take on a mild vanilla flavour.

 

In other words, I wouldn't worry about it.

Yeah, what he said. I kept adding the used vanilla pods to a container of sugar over the course of almost a year with the goal to use the sugar for Christmas cookies I was going to make. The sugar was used in the dough and the cookies were rolled in the sugar before baking. The level of vanilla flavor present was disappointing. I could have just added vanilla to the cookies and rolled them in plain sugar and got a much better result. The aroma of vanilla in the sugar when you open the container is very nice, the amount of flavor and aroma you get in the finished product is very subtle. I still toss the used pods in a container of sugar because there are some uses for it where a very subtle hint of vanilla is nice and it seems better than just tossing the pods in the trash but as a baking/dessert ingredient, I find it a bit underwhelming.

 

[weinoo]

Yes.

 

Yes and no.

[jmacnaughtan]

Yeah, what he said. I kept adding the used vanilla pods to a container of sugar over the course of almost a year with the goal to use the sugar for Christmas cookies I was going to make. The sugar was used in the dough and the cookies were rolled in the sugar before baking. The level of vanilla flavor present was disappointing. I could have just added vanilla to the cookies and rolled them in plain sugar and got a much better result. The aroma of vanilla in the sugar when you open the container is very nice, the amount of flavor and aroma you get in the finished product is very subtle. I still toss the used pods in a container of sugar because there are some uses for it where a very subtle hint of vanilla is nice and it seems better than just tossing the pods in the trash but as a baking/dessert ingredient, I find it a bit underwhelming.

 

 

Where I used to work, they'd dry out the vanilla pods used from pastry cream and mousses, then cook them up with the nuts and sugar when they made praliné paste.  You don't get a stunning amount of vanilla flavour in it, but it rounds it out a little and, well, you're just using up something that would get thrown away anyway.

 

I'm drying out the ones I use at home, and plan to just pulverize them with an equal weight (or probably more if necessary) of sugar.  I haven't tried it before, but it might turn out to be a usable product.

 

If anyone has any better uses for used vanilla pods, I'm all ears

[heidih]

Our family and friends traditionally kept a vanilla bean pod in the powdered sugar shaker to sprinkle over finished baked goods or for rolling butter/nut cookies like Vanillekipferl.  It was a previously unused pod - but they didn't you whole vanilla bean for anything else. It gave a gentle vanilla fragrance and taste.